Ninja: Survivor
by PactumServa
Summary: No one had expected a missing and presumed dead ninja to return, let alone to return like this. Note: there is mention of torture. A story of healing, adventure, and a second chance at life.
1. Chapter 1: The Struggle to Konoha

Heylo again: another fic offering! First attempt at a chapter fic ... Once more, it is unbeta-ed, so apologies for mistakes and whatnot. Reviews would be fantastic! Copyright of Naruto belongs to the creator. Thanks for reading - enjoy!

Summary: A story of healing, adventure, and a second chance at life.

**Ninja: Survivor**

_Chapter One: The Struggle to Konoha_

His own uniform was long gone, but the shirt he had taken from the killed guard was long enough that it covered his whole body. At first he had intended to take the ninja vest, as it provided more safety, but it had simply been too heavy to bear. And the almost overwhelming urge that dominated his mind, that pushed him forever onwards: _Remember who you are. Get back to Konoha and tell the Godaime. You cannot fail._

So here he was. Racing through the forest as fast as his short legs could allow, as fast as his battered body could bear. His Konoha hitae-ate, the only thing they had left him, probably the only thing that had kept him clinging on to the shreds of his sanity, had been used as a bandage around the worst of his injuries. Even still, it had been seeped through with blood hours ago.

Bloodied fingers and palms too small suddenly missed the grip of the next branch he was aiming for. He fell heavily, his body creating a large 'thud' as it impacted with the ground. The pain ripped through him, the flimsy shirt providing next to none protection, and he screamed. The agony wouldn't subside. The oblivion of merciful darkness loomed, beckoning, and he almost surrendered gratefully. Almost. But something prevented him from succumbing, something that was … himself? kept repeating: _Remember who you are. You _must_ get back to Konoha and tell the Godaime. You _mustn't_ fail._

So he struggled on. Somehow he pushed himself up, somehow he forced himself to keep moving forward. And somehow, miraculously, he made it. Five days after he had escaped that hell hole, already taxed beyond what he could endure, he had made it back to the gates of Konoha. Not the main opening gates, of course, but one of the sentry posts solely for ninjas.

About ten meters short of said gate, he tilted his head up wearily, looking at the sky, and was surprised to see that the stars were out. He hadn't noticed that it had become night. Too late did he realise that it was a bad move. Losing what little balance he had left, the word spun crazily on its axis and he once more fell hard to the ground. This time, he couldn't get up.

"Kage bunshin no jutsu." He heard one of the guards mutter the technique. Seconds later, strong arms had sat him back up and were doing a quick diagnostics on him. He recognised the ninja as Aoba, wearing sunglasses even in the dark of the night, and leaned trustingly into the man.

"Morino-san, he's badly hurt." Aoba spoke up urgently, voice carrying through the night skies and silence. "I can't even begin to figure out what's wrong with him. He needs medical attention."

The voice that replied didn't even sound fazed. "Well, he'll get none until we can prove he's one of ours. Many a nation has fallen for this ruse, and Konoha'll not be one of them."

Aoba tensed, but realised that Ibiki was right. He had grown a soft spot for children after being in contact with them for so many years. "I'll just put a stasis jutsu on him then. You can ask him the questions." His hands lifted to form the seals, then stopped as he saw the outline of something around the torso of who his Kage Bunshin was holding. Pulling it out then completing the jutsu, he exclaimed in surprise and dismay. "Morino-san! He's wearing a Konoha hiate-ate!"

Ibiki swore and was beside Aoba's Kage Bunshin immediately. Taking the hitae-ate, he examined it closely before sliding to his knees and scrutinising the body in front of him. "You've been tortured." He said matter-of-factly. "I can't see why anyone would torture someone like you, so there must be extenuating circumstances of which I am not aware. You also have a Konoha hitae-ate. This is what we're going to do. Either you're going to tell me everything right now, or you're going to tell me the clearance codes that give you the authority to speak with someone higher up. If not, I'm just going to put you out of your misery, consequences be damned." He was no newcomer to torture, but this was some of the worst he'd ever seen.

_Remember who you are. You must get back to Konoha and tell the Godaime. You cannot die_. The fallen ninja opened his mouth to answer, but nothing came out. With a sudden feeling of dread, he realised that his vocal chords were too dry to get the passcodes he had spent hours repeating in his head as a mantra to keep him going. Deciding to draw the codes in the dirt instead, he leaned over, only to fall so helplessly that his face would have hit the dirt if not for Ibiki catching him. His whole body trembled with exhaustion and tears welled into his eyes as he realised he could do no more. He was going to die.

But he had _promised_ he wouldn't. Promised. Promised he'd remember who he was, promised he'd get back and tell the Godaime, promised he wouldn't die. So think. _Think_. Something they could use to identify him, something that would get him to the Godaime even without the codes. Think.

And finally, summoning every ounce of willpower he had left, he forced out the beginning of one croaked word "Gen" and put a finger in the corner of his mouth. Then he slumped back, allowing his weight to be supported by Ibiki.

"'Gen'? And what's that stupid action he's doing?" Ibiki was not amused.

Aoba snapped his fingers. "Morino-san, I think he means Shiranui Genma. The finger in the corner of his mouth must be mimicking the senbon."

"Shiranui?" Ibiki replied. "Didn't Tsunade-sama put him on …" His voice hardened. "Get him."

"Sir." Aoba teleported out.

The remaining two kept silent in the forest, one too exhausted yet relieved his plan had worked, one's mind racing at the implications this could bring.

A mere few minutes passed before Aoba returned, followed closely by Genma. Upon arrival, the tokubetsu jounin put two fingers between his own fourth and fifth ribs, sending a small chakra flare. His eyes widened and he leapt for the two on the round. "Ibiki! It's him!"

Ibiki's face paled. "Aoba, get Tsunade! Then send out the white dove flare! Genma, hold him, feed him chakra, keep him stable. I'll teleport the three of us!" He roared immediately. Ibiki then shrugged off his enormous trenchcoat and draped it around the ninja Genma had identified.

Aoba had gone by the time Ibiki started saying the word "Genma". Ibiki and Genma followed almost immediately, sending the emergency hospital ward into an uproar.

Upon seeing them, the medic-nin in charge of the graveyard shift immediately flared a healing jutsu into his hands, intending to ease the pain of the one Genma was holding, but the trench-coated Ibiki stopped him. "He needs the pain to focus. We must wait for Tsunade-sama. Just ease his throat a little so he can talk."

"I'm here." Tsunade ran into the room, before stopping dead. "Oh dear Gods …"

Genma let go as his charge struggled to stand on his own. A cough had blood running down his shirt, and when he opened his mouth to speak his words were but a harsh rasp. "Godaime. Captured. Tortured by Ibiki's captors. Turned into this, mind included. Tried to keep mind to tell you. Hatake Kakashi. Mission completed."

_You did it. You remembered who you are. You got back and told the Godaime. You didn't die. Well done. You can let go now._

And he collapsed.

Silence reigned for a second as everyone looked down the unconscious and dying Hatake Kakashi. The Copy Ninja, now but the size of a four-year-old, severely tortured, boy.

* * *

TBC ... ? The introduction of a couple, and the fight to save Kakashi's life ... 


	2. Chapter 2: The Struggle for Life

Hi everyone! Apologies for the hiatus; I owe an explanation: usually my stories have very little speech in them, so I decided to write this one based mainly on speech, with not as much description (excepting the first chapter as an introduction). It's an experiment, and I'm not sure I like how it's turned out so far, but I'll probably finish posting up what I've got written.

Thanks heaps for the reviews! Enjoy.

**Ninja: Survivor**

_Chapter Two: The Struggle for Life_

"I'm sorry for waking you up like this, Shizune." Yuuhi Kurenai apologised, looking at the clock. "It's well past midnight."

"Nonsense." Shizune smiled at the pregnant woman. "What kind of medic-nin would I be if I only kept Academy hours? Besides, this was exactly the reason why I said I'd stay over for the first night."

"But you already spent all day today helping Asuma and I move in … you must be dead tired."

"Ah, no. _Raidou_ spent the whole day helping Asuma and you move in. _I_ merely sat back and enjoyed the view." Shizune corrected, eliciting a giggle from Kurenai.

One more voice suddenly joined the two kunoichis. "Must women have giggle sleepovers even in the dead of the night? A man's gotta get his well-deserved rest, you know." A mock growl, preceding a sleep-rumpled Sarutobi Asuma wandering into the living room also. A chaste kiss to Kurenai, before a concerned, "Is everything all right? Did something happen?"

Shizune was quick to explain and reassure. "It's nothing, Asuma. Kurenai woke me up because the babies were very restless and not sleeping. I finished checking just before you came in. They're only up and about because of you, Kurenai. They can feel your excitement over the new house, that's all."

The prospective parents both gave a sigh of relief. Asuma stepped away, heading for the window to have a smoke.

"Asuma!" Shizune scolded. "Lighting up at this time of the night!"

"You'll get used to it." Kurenai smiled at her friend. "It makes him feel more manly."

Asuma looked over, face twisting into a scowl. It didn't look nearly as intimidating though, what with the pyjamas he was still in.

Noticing this, Shizune asked curiously, "We didn't really wake you up with our giggling, did we?"

Kurenai gave a rather unwomanly snort, answering before Asuma could. "As if he could hear us through his own bear snoring."

Asuma returned a raised eyebrow before giving a charming smile. "Actually, I knew the moment Kurenai was up she'd be having cravings of some exotic sort, so I thought I'd be a dutiful husband and stand at her beck and call." He blew another draft of smoke out the window, then suddenly froze, tensing up. "Shizune! The white dove is flying!"

"What?!" Shizune leapt to the window. The next second, the white dove opened its beak and called, its pure sound clearly reverberating through the town.

"The white dove?" Kurenai looked alarmed. "That's one of the highest medic emergency call signals there is! I had better go too!"

In the middle of hefting on her medic pack, Shizune spun back around. "You will do no such thing." She said sharply. "You were advised away from any more teleportation jutsus last week. It could be a bloodbath out there; I have no idea what is happening yet. If you are needed, I give you my word that I will send for you. For now, just stay here." A nod to them both, and she ran out the door.

"You should have teleported her …" Kurenai said worriedly, hand rubbing her stomach. "It'll take her a lot longer to run to the hospital."

Asuma disagreed. "No, it'll be better for her if she runs. That'll loosen up the muscles and get her blood circulation flowing for whatever she's going to deal with. You know how dizzy Shizune gets after teleportation, and I doubt she'll have time for anything but a clear head." Flicking out the cigarette, he sat down next to his wife, draping an arm around her in reassurance. "Don't worry." He soothed, putting his other hand over hers. "Things are going to be just fine."

But if only that was true.

Because things were not going to be fine at all. By the time Shizune raced into the hospital, almost all of the medic-nins were there already, but just standing there and doing nothing, because Tsunade had not given them any orders.

"_What_ is going on here?" Shizune yelled.

The other medic-nins cleared a path for her, and Shizune gasped in shock. For there, on the floor, cradling a small child, was Tsunade, her face one of utmost concentration.

"Shizune." Tsunade never even took her eyes of the child, hands never stopping their work. "Organise the medics. _Every, _and I mean _every_ system of his is shutting down. I need him in the intensive operating theatre, and I need a team on _everything_. Get anyone who's not a medic out, and get Sakura out too."

Shizune acted immediately. "Well?" she snapped. "Ibiki, Genma, Aoba, get out of here. Take Sakura with you."

Sakura opened her mouth to protest – why couldn't she stay and help? – but Ibiki was suddenly behind her, a hand on her shoulder. "If you are an apprentice of Tsunade-sama, you will listen to her." He said in a level tone. "They will inform us of what is happening when they have time. We leave."

The three men disappeared out with her.

In that short space of time, Shizune had already divided everyone up there into the groups required. She didn't really know what Tsunade needed, but by the sound of things, it was bad. She then sent the younger ones to prep a room and to bring any equipment that was needed.

Tsunade looked up for the briefest of instants with a glance of 'thank-you', then stood up, holding the boy securely. She started walking, and all the groups followed her. "I've stabilsed him enough to get to the operating theatre. Once we get there, it's going to be touch and go for a few hours. We may lose him yet. But we cannot afford to. This is going to take everything we've got, but I have faith in each one of you. Shizune has divided all of you into groups; you will work on your particular section. If you have any sustenance pills on you, I suggest you take them now, because we will be in the operating theatre for a while."

Reaching the theatre, she placed the boy gingerly down on the operating floor. With one more look at everyone around her, she nodded, and removed the stasis jutsu. Immediately, every single monitor built into the room went off, and the boy's body arched.

"Get to it!" she roared. Everyone leapt into action.

The boy was dying. Each one of his failed systems alone would have been enough to kill him, but combined he was as good as dead already. Still, they were not people of Konoha for nothing. Tsunade employed almost all of her most complicated jutsus to keep his brain functioning. Another team maintained his heart, repairing the holes – and although they couldn't figure out the strange chakra that swirled around it, they forced his heart to keep pumping and keep the blood. Still more teams mended the holes in other organs, expelled poisons, fixed things such as ribs protruding into his lungs causing a drowning build up of fluid. He was only still living because they were basically holding him together with their own chakra.

Hours passed. The boy was still in a critical – and not stable – condition. They had almost already lost him six times. Tsunade by then had let her youthful genjutsu fade, needing every amount of chakra she possessed in her body focused on her battered patient. All the other medic-nins looked equally as tired.

But they struggled on. Slowly, slowly, they coaxed his body to respond. Dawn passed, and it was closer to midday before they finally stopped. They had done it. It would be a long recovery process, but they boy would live. Currently, they could barely see him. Where he was not covered in blood, it was stitches; not stitches, bandages; not bandages, IV's. He probably had more medic-nin chakra and medicines in him than his own blood. But he would _live_.

Tsunade slumped against the wall. "Well done, everyone." She said wearily. "Go home, take the next few days off, or something. I'm incredibly proud of all of you, I just don't have the energy to say so. I'll get in contact with all of you within the next few days. For now, get some well-deserved rest. Konoha gives you her thanks."

The exhausted medic-nins nodded and left. Finally, only Shizune and Tsunade remained. They looked at the deathly-still body on the operating floor, morbidly observing that except for his shallow breathing, he could be dead.

"He's stable, what with all the machines that are on him, but he's going to need around-the-clock supervision until he wakes up." Tsunade muttered.

"Well, not from you." Shizune objected. "You need rest even more than all the other medic-nins. They all had the eagerness and determination, but only you had the skill." She looked confused. "Why did you send Sakura out, anyway? She's one of the youngest, but she could have been of tremendous help. And I just realised, I haven't even asked, no one has. Who is that boy? Why is he so important?"

Tsunade rubbed a hand over her eyes. Of course, Shizune had no idea. There hadn't been any time to clean Kakashi up, it had taken all they had just to save him. Kakashi was still unrecognizable. "'That boy', as you so put it, is our very own Hatake Kakashi." She was too exhausted to mince her words up.

"Kakashi-sempai!" Shizune put a hand to her mouth, horrified. "What the hell _happened _to him?"

"From what I got from him, he was tortured and somehow turned back into this four year old child. Other than that, I don't know. His mind is too weak to take a mental probing from our ANBU."

"No wonder you wanted Sakura out … but is this going to be permanent?"

"It shouldn't be. Remember how there was that strange wound and chakra around his heart? It was mirrored by what I found in the brain. From what I can gather, Kakashi will turn back into the man he is when he needs to. I'll need more time to be sure, though."

"What?"

"I don't really understand it myself. But for the meantime, we just need him to heal. So it could be months, really."

"In that case, you cannot keep this information from Team 7. Why don't you call in Sakura, get her to clean up Kakashi a bit with a wet cloth, then stay and monitor him? Ibiki, Aoba or Genma can join her also. You can't do anymore without getting some rest first. We'll have a meeting tonight. How about that?"

"I knew your genius organisational abilities were why I hired you." Tsunade muttered, giving a tired smile to Shizune.

Sakura was quickly found. When she arrived, bursting to the seam with questions, Tsunade merely held up a hand, forestalling them.

"He will survive. The recovery process will be a long one, but he will be fine. I want you to stay here today and look after him. Get Ibiki-san, Aoba-san and Genma-san as well. Wipe him down with a cloth. Monitor his stats. Do what you know. Find me if there's an emergency. One last thing. And _classified_, Sakura. You cannot tell anyone, not even Naruto and Sasuke. I will inform them myself later. This will come as a shock to you, so brace yourself, but the boy here – " she gestured, pausing to give some time to Sakura, " – is your jounin-sensei. Kakashi."

Sakura went green, one hand flying to her mouth, another to her stomach. Shizune realised she must've remembered the condition in which he was brought in and made as if to get a sick bag, but Sakura quickly brought herself back under control like the true medic-nin she had the potential to be. As she looked back up, eyes burning with questions, Shizune cut in quickly. "No time for questions now, Sakura. The Godaime has been keeping him alive for almost ten hours. She needs her rest. Everything will be answered tonight. Can I trust you until then?"

Sakura touched her hitae-ate, swallowed nervously, the nodded. "Yes." She answered firmly. She still looked sick to the stomach though.

"Good girl." Tsunade said wanly, and allowed herself to be led out.

They parted ways, each going home for a quick shower and then blessed sleep.

* * *

TBC ... ? Explanations and plans for the future. 


End file.
